Day two of EE Global kicked off with another great group of speakers—including Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz—and a very exciting announcement about the next phase of the Energy 2030 campaign. Today marks the official launch of Energy 2030 On the Road: A State and Local Campaign to encourage state and local policymakers and businesses across the country to embrace the goal of doubling U.S. energy productivity by 2030. Nearly 100 diverse organizations have already endorsed the goal, and the Energy 2030 Leadership Circle issued a call to action for states, cities, businesses, and other communities to do their part to double energy productivity.

After the official launch, Secretary Moniz and a number of other government and business leaders spoke, and many shared a common theme: although Congress may not be doing much on energy efficiency, states, cities, and businesses around the country are leading the way by implementing innovative policies to reduce energy use and save money.

Secretary Moniz reiterated the Department of Energy’s (DOE) commitment to engaging stakeholders at the state and local level, and said that DOE is actively working on establishing institutional methods to coordinate efforts to achieve the goal of doubling U.S. energy productivity by 2030. Andy Bennett, senior vice president of infrastructure and capital at Schneider Electric, emphasized that many American cities already understand the importance of energy productivity; they invest in energy efficiency not just because it’s “the right thing to do,” but because they realize that every dollar saved on energy bills can then be re-invested into something more important to the community.

Former Governor Bill Ritter, director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, delved a bit more into the hard numbers of state-level energy efficiency action. In the last year, 93 different energy efficiency bills have been introduced in 30 states; 8 bills have been enacted in 7 states; and at least 20 pieces of legislation are still active, and could potentially be passed. These states seem to understand the magnitude of the potential benefits of increased energy efficiency—and they seem to be up to the challenge of doubling energy productivity by 2030!

The Alliance thanks all of the above speakers—plus Jorge Carrasco, general manager and CEO of Seattle City Light; John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer at UTC; Delware Secretary Environment & Energy Collin O’Mara; Terry Tamminen, strategic advisor to the founding chair for R20 Regions of Climate Action; Alex Laskey, president and founder of Opower; and Michael Melaniphy, president and CEO of APTA—for sharing their companies’, organizations’, and states’ work to increase energy productivity. Help spread the word about Energy 2030 to communities across the nation by urging your state officials to support the Energy 2030 goal, or endorsing the goal on behalf of your own company or community!